However, Die Welt’s smaller version, Die Welt Kompakt, was less forgiving, featuring a large front-page image of May aboard a Union Jack paper boat adrift at sea. Above the striking picture the word “farewell” was written in block letters.

“The EU must remain tough in the Brexit negotiations with Great Britain,” argued Germany’s other media titan Die Zeit. The headline of the article was also cause for controversy, as the words “The Art of the Deal” clearly evoked US President Donald Trump, whose bestselling book has the same title.

The French press seemed more saddened than its German neighbors, with the left paper Liberation fronting with the words “we miss you already” over an image of a member of the Queen’s Guard.

The Italians at La Repubblica decided to focus on the Scottish independence referendum as a “challenge” to London and Brexit Britain. The famous Corriere della Sera talked of British “uncertainty” at the moment of the “jump,” after Brexit minister David Davis confirmed there would be no cap on EU immigration after all.

The most curious, perhaps, might have been Spain’s El Pais, which fell in love with Downing Street’s cat Larry, streaming footage of the feline sitting outside the door of Number 10, waiting to be let in.